Great Pace, Shame about the Clutch 🙂‍↔️

Hey guys,

Tough weekend to swallow in Darwin, where we ended up with great pace but could show it.

It’s always super tough coming up into Darwin. It’s so different to everywhere else we go to, especially with the number one thing being the heat and how high track temps and the UV is up here. You have to try and go a little bit of your window with car set-up to try and maximise. It’s also been a bit of a bogey track for us in the past.

There were points at the weekend I thought we were really good, but there were some traits in the car we didn’t really get on top of on Friday and Saturday. I have to put my hand up for probably steering the car down the wrong path on Saturday after qualifying 23rd for the second race. When the car’s not in the window, it feels like you’re a million miles away.

Sunday the guys really fixed a lot of some of the weaknesses in my car. There were still some that I just couldn’t get my head quite around. I really struggled to create the balance I needed, especially in the mid corner, but then for whatever reason in the race the car really perked up its ears and got going.

But obviously the Sunday race I got hampered by what looks like another clutch drama. I’m not too sure what. It was a little bit like Adelaide at the end of last year. I went to do the practice start, and the clutch did the same thing as it did then — it just went to the floor, which is pretty nerve-racking!

We decided it was safer to start from pit lane than on the grid.  You just put your head down and put your bum up in those ones. You know you’ve got to drive the wheels off it to try and get a result. I was really shocked to get back to 12th, and it really showed the pace that was there in the car.

I’m just really gutted for all the boys and girls at WAU because they’ve been working really, really hard. I’m just gutted. The day you have a car to get really, really good result, we just didn’t quite have it go our way.

We want to be firing up more towards the pointy end of the field. We’ll have another swing in Townsville.

Cheers,

Chaz